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Ben Lukacek anticipated meeting a cycling buddy on Tuesday for a morning ride.

The Richmond man said he was "riding on the Cardinal Greenway having a good ol’ time and saw the beautiful sight that looked like water cascading down from the railroad tracks, but you get closer, you can see it’s a pile of sand."

A Norfolk Southern Railway train stopped on its way to deliver the sand to Johns Manville with part of the train resting on a bridge just north of the D Street Trail Head, said Richmond Fire Department Battalion Chief Charlie Bartlett. The car above the trail began leaking onto the trestle below, with sand bouncing off the trestle, pouring onto the trail and forming a pile against the trestle.

It was a new experience for Lukacek, who sat on his mostly homemade three-wheeler watching the sand before linking up with his buddy for their ride.

"Ride it a lot, haven’t seen it before, but it wasn’t a big deal … once you know what it is,” he said.

Some passers-by were leery of the pile as they approached, asking Wayne County Sheriff's Department officers on the scene if the material was toxic. It wasn't, and it only blocked a portion of the trail, allowing walkers, cyclists and joggers to continue their journeys.

Someone using the trail had flagged down an officer about the sand shortly before 8 a.m. Sheriff's officers monitored the scene while RFD personnel checked the leaking car. Eventually, Norfolk Southern personnel arrived and the train was moved about 9 a.m. so the leaking car no longer rested above the trail.

Bartlett said the railroad was sending personnel from Muncie to patch the car and clean up the trail mess.

Ben Lukacek of Richmond was "riding on the Cardinal Greenway having a good ol’ time and saw the beautiful sight that looked like water cascading down from the railroad tracks, but you get closer, you can see it’s a pile of sand." Mike Emery/Palladium-Item